


Homebrewing a Lifestyle for the Children of Monsters

by PennamePersona



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Clones/Mutants Dave & Rose, Dark, Dungeons & Dragons, Everyone's Got Stuff Going On, F/F, Ghost(ish) John, M/M, Multi, Mutant Karkat, Not extremely dark but there's definitely more dark tone than most of what I write, Radioactive/Mutant Jade, Science Experiments, Tbh worth adding on specifics here probably, Trans Karkat, Vampire Kanaya
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2019-08-04 10:23:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16344980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PennamePersona/pseuds/PennamePersona
Summary: “Dave, I’m an ectobiologically conceived clone made for a highly specific purpose that my creators refuse to disclose to me, and tonight I’m going to associate with people outside of the only three people in the world who seem to understand the reality of that situation,” You say. “And worse, I’m a lesbian about to play dungeons and dragons with a pretty girl. Of course I’m nervous.”“Yeah, that sounds about right.” Dave says. “You wouldn’t be Rose Lalonde if you weren’t a fucking mess.”





	1. Rolling Stats

**Author's Note:**

> Alright so I have a tough time usually with multi-chapters, so I'll ask that if you like this and want more, you say so and make a point of the things you like *about* it - that'll make it easier for me to stay motivated.
> 
> Also, this AU is meant to be totally wild. Hope it works!

“I’m just saying that you’re a fucking coward,” Dave says, and you sigh.

 

“I’m not a coward,” You say, rifling through your papers. “I just have taste.”

 

“You literally wrote an actual wizard fanfic novel at age fourteen,” Dave says. “Also, your screen is falling over.”

 

“Dammit,” You mutter, propping the generic DM screen back up. You need to get a new, more aesthetically pleasing one soon, but for tonight this one will work.

 

“Nervous?” Dave asks, losing the overtly teasing tone. You pause in your fluttering movements, and look him in the eye.

 

“Dave, I’m an ectobiologically conceived clone made for a highly specific purpose that my creators refuse to disclose to me, and tonight I’m going to associate with people outside of the only three people in the world who seem to understand the reality of that situation,” You say. “And worse, I’m a lesbian about to play dungeons and dragons with a pretty girl. Of course I’m nervous.”

 

“Yeah, that sounds about right.” Dave says. “You wouldn’t be Rose Lalonde if you weren’t a fucking mess.”

 

“An excellent point,” You say, laying a pen down on top of your carefully organized papers. “Now. Show me that character sheet, brother dear.”

 

* * *

 

You tap your fingers impatiently as the machine does its work, glowing faintly green as it runs your blood through the usual tests you’ve been keeping up on for as long as you can remember. It beeps, and the screen flashes with numbers that disappear too quickly for most people to read.

 

You are not most people.

 

“Why do I have so many d8s?” John asks, rifling through his dice bag. “Jade, can I borrow your dice?”

 

“No,” You say, cheerfully. “Bug Dave about it, my dice like me, and I’m not letting you jinx that!”

 

“Augh, worst sister,” John whines. “Be nice to me.”

 

“Make me,” You say, in that same cheerful tone. It’s like you can hear John’s reaction to it, and maybe you can. No one like you or John has ever existed, as far as anyone knows, so there’s no good way of telling what is your hyper-sensitivity and what is John’s Presence, much less what’s only a trick of paranoia.

 

You do glance over at John, though, and see those hauntingly blue eyes gazing directly into yours. The moment lasts longer than you want it to, and then he solidifies, and your instincts settle back to their usual background hum.

 

“We better go soon, or we’ll be late,” John says. “And Rose’ll never let us live that down.”

 

“Especially since she’s got a girl coming!” You agree. “I can’t wait to meet her. I think Dave said she was bringing a friend, too.”

 

“Huh,” John says, scooping up his bag. “I wonder what they’ll be like.”

 

* * *

 

“You get how risky this is, right?” Karkat says, again. “Like, Kanaya. You understand how risky this is, _right_?”

 

“Yes, Karkat,” You sigh. “I understand the risks.”

 

“Really? Are you sure?” He asks, running his hands through his hair. “Because I think maybe you don’t, since you’re still fucking doing this. What the hell happened to subtlety, Kanaya? I thought that was your whole shit?”

 

“That’s my family’s whole shit,” You say. “ _My_ whole shit is living a life outside of a group of, at maximum, three hundred carefully selected people, half of whom exist to be fed off of.”

 

“Well, when you put it that way,” He rubs his temple, then drops his hands. “I get it, Kanaya. I really do. I’m just…”

 

“Nervous?” You fill in, and he nods.

 

“Terrified, honestly. I’m not a huge fan of that.” He shoves his hands in his pockets, then, and pushes his head into your chest. “God, I hope this ends up being worth it.”

 

“I’m sure it will,” You say, hoping desperately that your own fear isn’t leaking through your teeth. Karkat’s groan suggests that it certainly is, but he readjusts his backpack regardless, and pulls back to look you in the eye.

 

"Well, I know I've done stupider," He says. 

 

"True," You say, attempting a smile. "And you're still here."

 

He mirrors the wry pull of your lips and takes a deep breath. 

 

“Alright,” He says. “We’re doing this.”

 

“We’re making it happen,” You agree, and he laughs.

 

* * *

 

“Fuck you, John,” You say, as Rose opens the door to the apartment the two of you share, presumably to let in the cute girl she met last week. “People who choose sorcerer and max dex shouldn’t throw stones.”

 

“He’s got a point,” Jade says, leaning on her own character sheet. “You’re gonna be so squishy, John, and your spells aren’t gonna do shit.”

 

“Whatever,” John says. “I will kick all of your asses so hard, and you will cry.”

 

“Generally, dungeons and dragons is a collaborative effort,” Rose says, sitting back down at the head of the table. “But I suppose we could do some battle royale, if you’d all prefer.”

 

“No fucking thanks,” One of the newcomers says, and wow, fuck, Rose did not mention that her cute lesbian’s friend looked like this. You shoot a glare at Rose, who smirks back at you.

 

“Fuck you,” You mutter, though no one but Rose can hear it. Her smirk only grows, satisfaction at someone else being uselessly gay fortifying her.

 

“Kanaya, these are my friends and brother,” Rose says, sweeping an arm widely enough to encompass the relative disasters that are the setups you, John, and Jade scrambled together.

 

“Charmed,” The dark-skinned girl says, her eyes sharply casting over all of you. Something about her puts you on edge in an uncomfortably familiar way, which, judging by what you know of your sister’s tastes, might be why she’s here.

 

“Same here,” You say, leaning your chair back. “And who are you?”

 

Kanaya’s friend scowls at you, which is typically how introductions go with you, anyway.

 

“I believe you must be Karkat,” Rose says, which causes the glare to be pointed in her direction, now. “Wonderful. Please, sit, and we’ll get right down to initiative.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I take writing requests! Information at: [provisionalpenname.tumblr.com](https://provisionalpenname.tumblr.com)


	2. Roll for Initiative

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh shit,” Karkat says. “Kanaya, I think this may have paid off, after all.”
> 
>  
> 
> And then the room turns green.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This definitely took too long, and I'm sorry about that, but in my defense, tired and college and like, actually pleasant stuff also! So here's more wild AU Homestuck, later than originally intended.

“Holy shit, dude, you suck at this game,” Dave says, which causes Karkat to narrow his eyes and reach over for a blood red d20 he’s set off for exclusively this purpose.

 

“No,” You say. “Your turn is over, Karkat. You cannot roll to bitch slap.”

 

Kanaya chuckles, which sparks a sensation in your chest that you might call fluttering, if that wasn’t a horrible cliche. Regardless, it’s nice.

 

“But I can!” Jade cries, her sparkly green d20 already rolling across the tabletop. “Sixteen, nice! Now, Dave, remind me, what’s your AC?”

 

“Don’t gotta be a bitch, Harley,” Dave grumbles. “You know it’s less than that.”

 

“Just checking,” Jade grins. “Alright, so since that’s unarmed, it’ll be I think 4 points of damage? Does that sound right, Rose?”

 

“Unless you’ve lowered your strength modifier since I last checked, that would be correct,” You say, smiling sweetly as your brother groans and adjusts his hit points.

 

“Yo, Kanaya, can I get a fuckin’ heal?” He sighs. “Just below half health now, thanks to - ”

 

“Thanks to your own big mouth,” Karkat interrupts, high-fiving Jade as he says it.

 

“He’s got you there, pal!” John laughs, and Dave huffs out a good-natured laugh as well. Your smile becomes more genuine, and then Jade twitches, and you and Dave freeze.

 

You both know that twitch. You’ve seen it only a handful of times before, but it’s always meant something that cannot happen here, now, with these people.

 

“Kanaya,” You say. “I believe you said you have a paper coming up, and I don’t want to keep you from it for too long. The stress would be such an unfortunate side effect of an otherwise lovely evening.”

 

Your sort-of-girlfriend’s brows draw together slightly, in what could be confusion or anxiety. You hope for the former and fear the latter, but though you trust Jade with your life, you refuse to have these parts of your life mix so soon.

 

“Yeah, gotta get on the grind,” Dave says, packing his things away to rush the process of getting Kanaya and Karkat the hell out of your apartment. 

 

“Aw, but the fun was just starting,” John says, smiling.

 

You feel your blood run cold at the exact moment Dave’s does.

 

“We’ve been playing for, like, an hour, dude.” Dave says, trying for casual and so nearly hitting the mark that you are more than willing to excuse it in this moment. “Fun’s been happening.”

 

“That’s not what I mean,” John says, that awful, blank smile stretching. “Can’t you tell?”

 

“No,” You say. “I can’t.”

 

And just as Dave’s eyes widen and Jade starts buzzing with static, you realize your mistake.

 

It won’t matter, minor as it is, but you can feel that slip imprinting itself on your brain. Too comfortable, Rose, you think. Too easy to fuck up.

 

“Karkat, Kanaya,” Dave says, standing up. “You should leave.”

 

“Why,” Karkat says, though he does stand, right along with Kanaya. “What the fuck is happening, Dave?”

 

“Rose,” Kanaya says, quiet, breathy, exactly how you’ve been wanting to hear in a vastly different context, and oh, hasn’t this all gone so horribly.

 

“They’re talking about me,” John says. “Apparently hiding is better than just owning up to who we are.”

 

“ _ What _ we are,” Jade spits.

 

“Fuck,” You say, through Dave’s lips.

 

“God dammit,” Dave says, through your own.

 

“Oh shit,” Karkat says. “Kanaya, I think this may have paid off, after all.”

 

And then the room turns green.

 

* * *

 

“You’re sure she’s okay?” You ask.

 

“Yeah,” Dave sighs. “Jade just needs time to recover. She’ll have exhausted herself with that. No worries, though, we’re just outside the city. Rose and I’ll drive back tomorrow, and y’all can sleep in safety and relative comfort tonight.”

 

He looks bone tired in a way you can tell isn’t just physical. The house is dark, which you imagine is a result of the sheer amount of power clearly running through the lab directly beneath it. You’re glad to be out of the glowing green lights, and though it’s a comfort to have had the visual proof of Jade’s safety, the image of her pacing in that room, green sparks flickering off of her, will stick with you for a long time.

 

“And John?” You ask, because you don’t want to be the one who has to answer.

 

“He’ll be fine,” Dave says, slumping down onto the couch. “He gets like this, sometimes. Or, well, whatever’s in him gets like this. He’s a fuckin’ ghost or some shit, ask Skaialabs if you want the file, I’m sure you’ll have no choice but to get clearance after all this bullshit. Sorry about that, by the way.”

 

You stare at him in shock.

 

“What?” 

 

He looks up at you, so, so tiredly.

 

“We were gonna tell you two,” He says. “Honestly, we were. Just...not so soon, and not like this, with Jade freaking out and transporting us back here. Promise you’re gonna be safe, though. Rose and I have enough pull to keep you guys out of their business. Test tube baby privilege, I guess.”

 

“Alright,” You say. “Are you just not going to ask, then?”

 

“Ask what?” He seems genuinely confused, and oh, god, this is your get out of jail free card. You opened your fucking mouth to congratulate Kanaya on her good judgement, and you might not even have to own up to why you would’ve said that.

 

You don’t have to out yourself.

 

Well, you do, because you are trans, and you haven’t outright mentioned that to Dave yet, but you don’t have to tell him about the mutant thing. You don’t have to tell him about being kind of an alien. You don’t have to even worry about telling him that Kanaya’s a fucking vampire.

 

“I’m a mutant,” You say, because you’re a fucking hell creature who apparently doesn’t care about his own safety. 

 

“Okay,” Dave says, pushing his shades up and into his snow white hair. “But, like, don’t steal my branding, because I definitely admitted to the mutant thing first.”

 

“No, you didn’t,” You shoot back, prioritizing beautifully. “You’ve only implied it so far.”

 

“Fair point,” He admits. “Hi Karkat, my name’s Dave Strider, and I’m kind of a clone of my twin sister. We have a telepathic link and everything. It’s the best, except for how it means that I only ever had two friends besides my sister, and they’re a fuckin’ radioactive half-wolf situation and, like, a ghost or some shit who brought all of us into existence, or something.”

 

“What the fuck,” You say. “How is your story weirder than mine?”

 

Dave just shrugs, a helpless smile strangling itself onto his face.

 

“Hell if I know,” He says. “Wanna deal with all of this shit tomorrow, instead?”

 

“Absolutely,” You say. “Where do I sleep?”

 

* * *

 

It’s so annoying when they do this. 

 

You aren’t a threat. You’ve never hurt anyone, and you don’t intend to. You’re powerful, yeah, but it’s not like that’s such a bad thing. You pulled a switch, sure, but good things happened. Dave and Rose and Jade happened, plus your body. Those are all good things!

 

Or, you think they are.

 

You sigh, blue wisps of air curling out from your lungs. It’s sort of nice to look at, the closest you’ve been to dissipating since you pulled yourself into John Egbert.

 

Who is you, kind of. You say so, but none of them really seem to believe you. It’s exhausting, and though you’ve never, ever said it, kind of scary. 

 

Ghosty Trickster, indeed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are fucking amazing, and even though this took ages, y'all's comments on the first chapter were genuinely really helpful and just. Awesome to read. So thanks for those, so much!! Would love more, if y'all can swing it!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading. Means a lot, 'specially in 20goddamn18, two years post-Homestuck.


	3. Charisma Saving Throw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “That’s so fucking weird.” Karkat says. “Kanaya, you have to agree that this is extremely fucking weird.”
> 
>  
> 
> “It’s very different,” You say, trying for diplomacy.
> 
>  
> 
> “It’s weird as shit,” Dave says.
> 
>  
> 
> “Alright, yes, it’s definitely odd,” You admit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...this hasn't been updated in months and I am *sorry* about that! The opportunity to sit down and be motivated for it has been difficult, but I do still want to continue it when I have the chances! I hope this chapter is at least a good one for y'all

You glare at your mother with narrowed eyes, wishing for what feels like the millionth time that your telepathic abilities extended further, and you could actually shoot lightning from your eyes.

 

Sadly, you never did manage to figure that trick out.

 

“Rose, please,” She says, pouring herself a martini with seemingly no self-awareness, as usual. “If you could cut the melodrama down, just a touch.”

 

“Do you mind?” Your voice says. “She’s still in recovery. Honestly, get some fuckin’ compassion.”

 

Your mother stops dead, martini almost to her lips. She sets it down, hand slightly shaky.

 

“Of course,” She says. “So sorry, Dave.”

 

You feel that light touch of fury-compassion that Dave always keeps so close for you, and then he retreats back into the recess of your consciousness. It’s so early for him to be this functionally awake, which you’re worried about, but as usual you must deal with your mother first.

 

“You’re going to give them clearance.” You say, with your own voice, and your mother taps her fingernails against the marble countertop.

 

“You do not call the shots here,” She snaps. “Jade’s behavior may not have been your fault directly, but this situation is out of your control now, Rose. I will not compromise Skaianet for the sake of your ego.”

 

“But you’ll ruin your chances of our cooperation for the sake of your own,” You say, so much more evenly than you feel. Dave pings a flash of confidence in your decision toward you, and you embrace it. “Dave and I left so we could improve ourselves and expand our world. You’re going to continue to support us in that, or you won’t have such willing test subjects any longer. John and Jade will follow us on this, you know they will.”

 

“We can’t afford to lose them.”  _ He _ says, coming into the room from behind you, and your hand curls into a fist before Dave pushes it to relax.

 

“I know,” Your mother says. “I know.”

 

“Give them their space,”  _ That bastard _ says. “Let them have their fun. They’ll come back.”

 

You get down from your seat and walk quickly from the kitchen, not bothering to pause until you get to your room.

 

It’s as much of a mess as it was the last time you were here. Clothes scattered on the floor, books open to seemingly random pages, papers everywhere. An open violin box, and splinters on the windowsill.

 

Kanaya is sitting cross-legged on your bed, and though your breath catches at the sight of her, like it always does, your anxiety spikes too high to appreciate that.

 

“Hello,” You say, at the same time a knock comes at the door connecting your room to the next one over.

 

* * *

You push the door open, not waiting for Rose’s verbal confirmation, which you maybe should have. You’re still not used to having to communicate with her out loud around other people, not after living your whole life here, surrounded by people who knew exactly what was happening and largely didn’t care about your social skills, anyway.

 

“Don’t freak out, Rose,” You say, dragging Karkat behind you. “We’re not the wildest thing these two have heard of.”

 

“Well that’s stretching it,” Karkat complains. “Maybe we know  _ some _ wild shit, but this is a pretty fuckin’ weird situation.”

 

Rose’s eyes get wide, and she looks at Kanaya with a mix of fear and hope that seems naked to you, but you know is generally less obvious to other people.

 

“Dave said you liked Twilight when you were younger,” Kanaya says. You’re pretty confident that everyone in the room is aware of how red Rose’s face is right now. 

 

“Yes,” She squeaks. “Though why he told you that, of all things - ”

 

“I can tell you with confidence that vampires do not sparkle in the sunlight,” Kanaya continues. “But we do possess some bioluminescent qualities.”

 

Rose sits down hard on the floor.

 

* * *

 

“Let me out, dickfaces!” You shout, pounding on the glass. “I’m calm now, and I want to talk to my friends!”

 

A blue vapor comes through the still sparking vents in the glass box Dave once lovingly called your “panic room” and a panel in the wall slides open without hesitation.

 

The vapor retreats as you hop out of the box, in time for a panel to open on the  _ very _ opaque box John is quarantined to when he “acts up.” Clearly, whatever new thing they’re trying this time isn’t working well at all.

 

John walks out of his box, glancing around until he sees you. He waves, grinning, and you can’t help but smile back. 

 

“Did I help?” He asks, eyes bright blue with mischief. 

 

“Yeah,” You say, pulling him into a quick hug. “Thanks, John. I hate being cooped up like that.”

 

“I know,” He says, looking extremely self-satisfied. You forget sometimes that John’s condition (or whatever they’re calling it now) leads to kindness as often as it does trouble. You think that, without him, you’d feel a lot more like a monster and a lot less like a person.

 

“Let’s go see Karkat and Kanaya,” John says. “They stayed here overnight.”

 

“I know!” You say, strolling arm and arm with your brother out of the lab, to the disapproving eyes of whichever of your guardians is watching through the cameras very pointedly tilting in your direction. “I hope they weren’t too scared.”

 

“Nah,” John says. “They seem tougher than that.”

 

* * *

 

“Last night was the most uniquely terrified I have ever felt.” You say as you dip your brush back into Rose’s nail polish. Her hand trembles as you hold it in your own, adjusting it so you have better access to her nails. You hope that, even with everything that’s happened, it is trembling out of attraction. 

 

“Jade does have that effect on people,” Dave says, then pauses. “Rose, I know you’re gay, but focus.”

 

“Ah, sorry,” Rose says, blushing. “I’m not used to this yet.”

 

“That’s so fucking weird.” Karkat says, picking a book off Rose’s shelf at random. “Like, I know there’s weirder shit going on, but Kanaya, you have to agree that this telepathy thing is extremely fucking weird.”

 

“It’s very different,” You say, trying for diplomacy. 

 

“It’s weird as shit,” Dave says.

 

“Alright, yes, it’s definitely odd,” You admit. “Have you done it often, before we knew?”

 

“No,” Rose says, very quickly. “We were careful. Jade and John surprised us yesterday, but we’re fairly good at not speaking through each other now.”

 

“We used to suck at it when we were kids,” Dave says, and Rose nods.

 

“No one ever knew who was talking,” She says, looking more nostalgic than upset. “Except for Jade and John. They were always pretty good at figuring it out.”

 

You glance over to see Dave’s faint smile.

 

“So what actually set them off?” Karkat asks, making a disgusted face at whatever he sees in the book. 

 

“I’m not certain.” Rose says. “Jade cannot always control herself, and perhaps the stimulus of new people was too much for her last night.”

 

“And John gets real dickish sometimes,” Dave says. “He hates that we keep things hidden. He’s…”

 

“Stubborn.” Rose finishes, and Dave nods.

 

“It’s so not polite to talk about people when they’re not in the room!” John says, and you almost knock over the nail polish bottle in surprise. 

 

John and Jade are standing in the doorway to Rose’s room, though you definitely did not hear the door open, or their footsteps approach it.

 

“Nothin’ we haven’t said to your face, don’t worry,” Dave says.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” John says, good-naturedly, which is a relief. John had seemed so pleasant before last night, and you’re glad to see that was not entirely false.

 

“Sorry about yesterday, guys,” Jade says, pushing past John to sit on the floor next to Rose. “I didn’t mean to get so out of control.”

 

“Shit happens,” Karkat says, and you nod.

 

“Wow,” John says. “I really thought you would be more upset, Karkat! You seem so calm.”

 

“Yeah,” Karkat says. “I’m a mutant, and close as we can figure, about half alien. So this isn’t, like, a world-changing experience. Weird? Abso-fuckin’-lutely. But it’s not like I’m just some human asshole along for the ride.”

 

John looks genuinely surprised, which isn’t a look you’ve seen on him often. You can’t help but chuckle a bit.

 

“Since we’re confessing things,” You say. “I am also not human. I am what you would call a vampire.”

 

There’s a brief silence. John and Jade stare at you and Karkat in turn. John’s eyes seem a brighter blue, and he appears somewhat less solid for a moment. Jade just looks heavily surprised, but there aren’t sparks or green glowing, so you suppose she must be feeling better.

 

“Well fuck,” Jade says, which seems to bring John back into the moment. The strange insubstantiality seems to solidify, and he just brings a hand to his face.

 

“Jesus, Rose,” He says. “You sure know how to pick ‘em!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry for the long wait! You can find me on tumblr under the same name if you'd like. Comments genuinely make my entire day, and also make writing easier, even if these gaps make it not seem like it. Also, I have a bunch of other Homestuck fics, and definitely take requests, if that's your thing!


	4. BREAK

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this finished for a while, honestly, and I just never got around to posting it. This is some background stuff, so it isn't a *lot*, unfortunately. I'd like to write more of this fic, and hopefully I'll get the inspiration, motivation, and also health to do it! Since I last updated this fic *months ago*, I've been diagnosed with both tendinitis in the wrists and elbow and "median nerve neuritis" which has all summed up to I either have carpal tunnel or I very nearly have carpal tunnel. The frequent wrist pain makes writing tough, which is part of why I haven't been posting much. I would like to write more fic, though, so here's hoping I'm able to keep up on it!

The lab is dark. 

It’s usually dim, but rarely is it completely dark. The low, green lights have shut down, leaving nothing to reflect off the tubes you’d so carefully helped construct and fill with that odd slime. 

You hadn’t asked too many questions about the slime. It wasn’t your department. 

Your department is public relations. Your department is cake. Your department is Jane Egbert, the sweet nanna running the local joke shop who always has a joke and a smile.

Your department is covert joint head of Skaianet Industries. 

Your son had been the closest thing that this lab ever had to a success. Doctor Lalonde and Strider hadn’t been part of that particular experiment, but they’d poured over the notes left behind by the researchers who hadn’t quite managed to pull through.

Lalonde and Strider had visions, ambitions large enough to spark up your own even further, and so you’d convinced Jake to fund them fully and bring them closer to your small inner circle.

But you’d been wrong. You hate admitting that, always have, but you have to face it. Lalonde and Strider got close, but there’s no life to what they made. It was a failed experiment, but at least you kept these two close. There’s still more they’ll be able to do.

You turn away from the viewport into the lab, letting your thoughts drift away from a failed experiment and back into places it belongs, places like competition management, and that odd woman you saw last week. She’d almost looked to be glowing…

You stop cold in the doorway. There’s blue light in your periphery, softly illuminating something behind you. You turn back around and see a strange, blue vapor filter through the vents into the lab.

You rush back to the viewport and see now, with this new light, that Lalonde and Strider are pressed against the viewport on the other side of the lab. They must’ve stayed late to commiserate over their failed experiment, and you’re confident by the shock on their faces that they had nothing to do with whatever this vapor is.

It’s starting to fill the lab completely, replacing all the air with blue mist, until it hits one of the tubes. It’s the one still housing the first part of Lalonde and Strider’s experiment, an attempt at a control sample. You and Jake had contributed, and Lalonde and Strider really had gotten so close. He looks so alive, somehow, even as nothing more than green slime in the shape of a human baby. They’d had no more success with the others, ending up with just four green shapes, never forming into what you’d all hoped for.

The mist passes through the glass without any resistance, and all seems to filter directly into the slime, all the blue light gone - 

Except that isn’t quite true. You glance over to the side of the lab, far from the tube, and see just a bit more of that vapor right next to a lever. It seems to be almost in the shape of a human, around the size of an older child, reaching up a hand and grasping the lever, pulling down - 

And the lab lights up green again. The blue vapor next to the lever is gone, and you look wildly around, unable to process what you see in the tubes.

Babies. Human babies. All four of them, no longer green, their eyes opening and mouths widening and they look like they’re crying, like a newborn baby cries, but  _ how did this happen _ ?

You see Lalonde and Strider scrambling away from their viewport, presumably to enter the lab itself, and you’ll follow them soon, you will. But for a moment, you’re transfixed. The baby who the mist had entered...his eyes. They’re so bright, painfully so, but unsubstantial somehow.

You’re snapped out of your trance when you see Lalonde waving her arms wildly at you, gesturing for you to come into the lab. She’s picked up one of the twins, the other being held by Strider. You know that they need you in there for the other two, that they’ll need your help in figuring out how to raise these odd creations, but even as you leave your viewport and rush to the lab’s entrance, you can’t stop thinking about how you’re now certain that you’ve lost your control sample completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually don't have a tumblr anymore! I deleted it a couple months ago, so it's really just comments here for getting in contact with me, though I'm considering putting my discord tag in my ao3 profile as well.
> 
> Anyway, comments rule and are often what pushes me into writing more! Lemme know if there's something you want to see, because fulfilling prompts is one of my favorite ways to write.

**Author's Note:**

> If you leave a comment here, it'll make my damn day.
> 
> I take writing requests! Information at: [provisionalpenname on tumblr](https://provisionalpenname.tumblr.com)


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